Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Review – Twists And Turns

What a year it’s been for Capcom. The studio has spun out a worthy new Resident Evil title, established a strong new IP with Pragmata, revived the Onimusha franchise with Way of the Sword, and has now come back for another stab at a formula it didn’t quite nail down in Dragon’s Dogma 2, delivering what now feels like the definitive version of that particular brand of chaos.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen takes you to Norgan, a region to the far north of Vermund, a desolate place where the threats you see might look familiar if you’ve spent enough time with the base game, but are immediately so much more of a challenge that you begin to look for creative ways to deal with them. It’s a fitting challenge for someone who claims the title of Arisen.

"I had a formidable Magick Archer build at my disposal, but it offered little comfort against the Beorcan warriors, Viking-like foes who fight with direwolves at their sides."

The latest title update adds interesting wrinkles and welcome polish to an already strong foundation. Every vocation has subtle changes that make it more accessible to beginners and more viable for veterans looking for a change of pace.

The performance issues that plagued the game were no longer apparent during my time playing on PlayStation 5. The expansion and additional content in the original regions offer plenty of reasons to return to the Arisen’s side, Pawns at the ready.

I began an entirely new playthrough of the game, blazing a path across the map to get to the Magick Archer vocation since I’d played a Thief the first time around. Improved performance was immediately noticeable, and the combat flow is going to feel that much smoother if you’re coming back to this one after a while.

I dove into Norgan at the recommended level of 40 with gear upgraded by a level or two, and my Vocation maxed out. I had a formidable Magick Archer build at my disposal, but it offered little comfort against the Beorcan warriors, Viking-like foes who fight with direwolves at their sides. They’re brutal and aggressive, switching targets at the slightest provocation while hitting so fast and hard that keeping them away becomes difficult.

Of course, that only makes each victory you earn feel that much sweeter, and the new Relic system is an important part of that. Each enemy you defeat has a chance to drop Relics that you can then have appraised by a very helpful NPC who resides in your base of operations in Norgan, a village that soon learns to respect you as a friend and ally through a bunch of engaging side quests centered around their characters.

"The High Five option is definitely one that I used as often as I could, and it’s nice to see something the community wanted for so long make its way to the game at last."

Those appraisals use Rift Crystals to convert Relics into weapons and gear unique to Norgan, but usable anywhere else in the game. It helps that even the lowest tiers of those items come with stats that are an immediate upgrade if you’re playing the expansion at its recommended level. Each piece of gear you get with a relic comes with specific abilities or buffs that add to your existing loadout in interesting ways. For instance, I equipped my main Pawn with as many pieces granting bonus damage against Beorcan warriors as I could find, a testament to how those new foes can easily turn the odds in their favor.

While the Magick Archer hasn’t received any new skills with the title update, I did see a lot of improvements made to the Archer’s ability to create distance in the base game. A lot of the Magick Archer’s improvements come in the form of the auto-targeting, which is now very quick to latch onto enemies in either of the two shooting modes, while I did see a noticeable buff to abilities like Ricochet Hunter and the Martyr’s Bolt ultimate skill.

Those higher numbers, along with a few new tools, give you access to more of Norgan, and you’re going to have to engage with the land before you get to take on its story. You see, there’s an early boss fight against that Fallen Dragon you’ve been seeing in all the promos, and I’d recommend taking it on at level 50 or above, with a close-to-complete set of gear for you and your main Pawn, and preferably tankier equipment on your recruited ones as well.

The Relic system is generous enough for you to absorb the loss if you switch them out, and you’re going to need your party to have all the survivability it can get. Pawns do respond better to combat situations and the world around them, pointing out potential traps to lure enemies into, such as collapsible ice pillars, while they’re also quicker to rush to your aid in case an enemy is on your tail and isn’t letting up.

The two new commands are also pretty welcome, with the Explore option being quite nifty if you find yourself wondering where you need to go. Of course, the newly added Spirit Compass is going to be your only solace in certain situations, but having the option for your Pawns to help out in other areas is very welcome. The High Five option is definitely one that I used as often as I could, and it’s nice to see something the community wanted for so long make its way to the game at last.

"Snowstorms often blind you in areas that require a sharp eye, and even serve as a complication in more than a few intense battles."

Exploring Norgan recaptures much of what made the base game so enjoyable for its fans. However, the developer has reduced some of the friction associated with its lack of hand-holding through helpful markers and generously placed Portcrystals throughout Norgan.

There’s also a surprising amount of verticality in this snowy region, making its brutal weather even more dangerous to navigate. Snowstorms often blind you in areas that require a sharp eye, and even serve as a complication in more than a few intense battles. Called Whiteouts, the frigid conditions they cause mean your Stamina is constantly depleting, leaving you with fewer options for attacks and Skills in a fight. The aforementioned Spirit Compass is the solution here, and is something you should try to get your hands on as early as you can.

That limits how freely you can use the two additional skills at your disposal, each of them bound to a combination of face buttons. The Beorcan warriors aren’t the only enemies around, either, although a lot of the enemy types you see in Norgan can feel like reskins of existing ones in the base game with a few new tricks up their sleeve to make things interesting.

However, the way the challenge scaled alongside my improving Relic equipment made every fight a desperate struggle to gain the upper hand, and I think it serves as a very elegant solution to the base game’s tendency to feel like a pushover once you have a bit of momentum going. If this is your first time with Dragon’s Dogma 2, don’t let overconfidence cloud your judgement, or Dark Arisen is going to humble you quite often in its early hours.

That’s as good a reason as any to visit some of the Lost Rites dungeons added by the expansion to the base game’s regions, as they’re a good balance between the expansion’s brutal challenge and the more relaxed progression of the base game. They’re pretty interesting and tie into the Relic system and exploration loop in Norgan meaningfully enough to make engaging with them worthwhile.

The level design and enemy placement in these new dungeons make them challenging during a fresh playthrough. I was around level 45-50 when I took on my first one, tucked away behind Bakbattahl, and I was able to clear it in about half an hour, boss encounter included. Good luck finding one, though, as I could only uncover a couple of them during my time spent flitting across the map to get my build in place.

"Personally, I prefer the Relic system over the convoluted upgrade paths that you need to take to get your gear up to speed in the base game."

Of course, the titular Dark Arisen is a huge part of the expansion’s allure, and we’ve already seen the Undead Dragon and the mysterious Eir in glimpses of the expansion before its release. I was quite eager to get started with uncovering what was going on, and my curiosity was rewarded, but with caveats.

The expansion’s story doesn’t really take off until you’ve explored a large part of Norgan, with only narratively imposed dead ends cutting you off from areas that house important objectives that come after your first battle against the Undead Dragon. It’s quite interesting, although a lot of it feels a little recycled from stuff in the base game.

The identity of the mysterious Sage, for instance, was something I could see projected from a mile away. The subsequent chain of quests that followed was then something I could already predict, and the sentiment was evident even in the side quests on offer. I helped a certain son try to find his inspiration to fight in order to earn the respect and validation of his father, a leader in his community.

If that sounds familiar to those of you who helped with the Elven questline in the base game in the village where you can upgrade your magic gear, you already know how that story goes, and it’s an almost play-by-play replica that you get in the expansion. That can feel like lazy writing when you take it in combination with familiar enemies, but all of that melts away in the face of a very addictive combat loop where you’re exploring, returning to appraise Relics, equipping new gear before a good night’s rest, and setting out again to do it all again over a brand new day.

Personally, I prefer the Relic system over the convoluted upgrade paths that you need to take to get your gear up to speed in the base game. It’s efficient, generates enough gear, materials, and weapons for every Vocation, and is a very rapid path to having a build that can take the fight to even Norgan’s most formidable foes.

That’s an area where Dark Arisen is at its strongest. Other dragons join the Undead one, alongside new enemies that come with interesting twists on familiar foes from the original release, and one or two new additions that stand out. The new dragons don’t do much to expand on the movesets you’re already familiar with, but the Undead Dragon is definitely up there with the deadliest of this game’s rogues’ gallery. My favorite was a giant bird with fire-based and poison-based abilities, complete with an entire ritual puzzle to summon it.

"A new Dragon awaits, and the path to it is so memorably fraught with peril and mystery that the journey has been as important as the destination throughout the twenty-odd hours I spent in Norgan."

As you can imagine, the momentum of the fight shifted constantly, with the bird downing my party quite often, only for me to pull off some excellent revives with the Magick Archer’s very convenient Skill. It was a battle that had me going from offense to support so often it was hard to find a rhythm, a sentiment that’s a common undercurrent to every encounter you’re a part of in Dark Arisen.

Overcoming those opponents was among the most challenging parts of the experience and was therefore the most rewarding. It’s where Dark Arisen fires on all cylinders, and why it’s a showcase of how far Dragon’s Dogma 2 has come in the years since its release.

Whether you’re a fan of the base game looking to experience a new chapter or a newcomer looking to earn the mantle of the Arisen, there’s no better time than now to dive in alongside the community to experience an expansion and base game that now make a fine pair. A new Dragon awaits, and the path to it is so memorably fraught with peril and mystery that the journey has been as important as the destination throughout the twenty-odd hours I spent in Norgan.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.